Wednesday, 24 August 2016

The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain Boardgame

THE WARLOCK OF FIRETOP MOUNTAIN BOARDGAME

Steve Jackson

Reviewed by Mark Lain

Dungeons are
easy environments to visualise as boardgames, especially as most RPGs are
normally played-out on a two- or even three-dimensional board of some sort. On
that basis, it doesn’t take a genius to work out how eminently adaptable many
gamebooks are to the boardgame format and therefore the easiest to adapt must
be those set in dungeons as the move-enter room-do something-move on-enter
another room etc structure suits moving a token around a board in a constant
repetition of the same basic formula. There have been many RPG-style boardgames
over the years, some more successfully executed than others, and some with
systems better-suited to the generally simplistic rule sets that boardgames
demand. An over-complex boardgame with dozens of rules to juggle around would
require a referee to hold it all together plus most boardgames are designed for
individual rather than collaborative play (an RPG staple) which sort of defeats
the object of everyone competing to achieve a goal of some kind and ultimately
winning. On that basis, FF’s combination of simple rules (the three basic
stats) and solo play make it ideal as the core mechanics of a boardgame.

I remember
being very excited when this was announced and it shot to the top of my
Christmas 1986 present list along with Games Workshop’s Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game and the lone two-player FF set Clash Of The Princes. I was good, Santa
was good, and Christmas Day 1986 was good. This was the first present I opened.
The box itself is beautifully presented with Peter Andrew Jones’ revised
artwork on the lid. Opinion differs over whether the revised (“true image of
Zagor”) or the original (“disguised old Zagor”) image is better, but both work
for me for different reasons. However, as the original drawing was designed to
be landscape so it would wrap around the front cover, spine, and back cover,
whereas the revised image was portrait to sit on the front cover only, the revised
art seems better suited to the vertical layout of the box, plus it does have a
more dynamic and updated feel to it. The back of the box shows a game in
progress presumably to give you an idea of what is sealed within. The actual contents
of the box are: a six-piece playing board that sets out the dungeon, 66
“encounter” cards divided into ENCOUNTER and TREASURE types, six MAZE cards
that allow the Maze of Zagor to have some element of random variation, 15 KEY
CHALLENGE cards (more on these later), six plastic miniatures to use as playing
tokens (in generic character classes of Wizard, Elf, Dwarf, Fighter, Barbarian,
Cleric), a pad of 50 Adventure Sheets, a glossy rulebook with the colour box
image on the cover, a reference booklet explaining how to deal with certain
“special” encounters and how all the different items of treasure work, and the
all-important pair of six-sided dice.

Playing the
game essentially involves, as with the source book, navigating through the
dungeon to reach the Warlock’s treasure chest (with the added element of having
to get there before any other player does as this is a competitive multi-player
version), but thankfully there is rather more to it than that. The Encounter
and Treasure cards are the crux of the game – both types are shuffled and the
game is set up by first randomly putting a Treasure card face down in each room
(except The Warlock’s Study and his Treasure Room of course), then by randomly
putting an Encounter card face down on each Treasure card, except in the
specially labelled rooms where pre-defined encounters take place (Gambling
Halls, Dragon, Shylock, Larder, etc) where specific Encounter cards named for
those rooms are put. The six Maze cards are then shuffled and randomly placed
face down on each Maze square. Once that is all done, the Key Challenge cards
are shuffled, three are picked out and put under the Treasure Chest card, and
the rest are distributed amongst however many players there are meaning each
player can start with a minimum of two and maximum of six Key Encounter cards.
Having set the board up you can then choose your playing token (the character
classes incidentally are irrelevant so whichever one you pick will make no
difference to anything) and roll up your character’s three stats in the
standard FF manner, at which point this begins to feel more FF-ish.

So, just how
similar to FF/WOFM is this, or is it,
like the ZX Spectrum adaptation of WOFM,
almost completely unrelated in every way? Well, it’s actually very well
integrated into the FF cannon and, other than a few obvious differences it
quickly feels like a traditional FF experience:

Obviously,
there is no text-driven concept, the whole adventure coming from what you see
on the board and the cards you turn over in each room, so there is rather less
atmosphere than in a gamebook making this feel more “light”

You
can see the entire layout of the dungeon from the outset, but that does not
make any difference as the element of surprise comes in the almost infinite
number of possible combinations of location-plus-encounter-plus-treasure

The
familiarity of Zagor and the two-part layout of the dungeon divided by a river drives
home the point that this is Firetop Mountain

The
standard FF rules for Escaping (and the associated penalties) are employed, as
are limiters in as much as certain encounters cannot be escaped from

As
with the book, there are different ways of negotiating the central subterranean
river and these are set within the rules rather than being randomised

The
Gambling Halls have been flown-in from Citadel
Of Chaos to add a bit of within-series cross-referencing

Combat
and Luck testing are exactly as per FF books, as is the use of Luck within
combat

·

Essentially then, this game takes the standard FF rules and transposes them onto a
randomly-generated dungeon based on an unalterable map. In many ways, this acts
as an excellent introduction to how to play the FF system as well as setting
out some of the key generic concepts such as Luck testing, trap negotiation,
combat rules, Stamina replenishment, etc along with some basic creature tropes
such as Wights having to be fought with magic weapons, Vampire hypnosis,
Fire-breathing things that involve additional die rolls in combat, etc etc.

There are
some notable omissions of key moments from the book, but these are mostly for
practical purposes. Zagor is not initially met disguised as an old man and the
concept of him drawing power from a deck of cards is excluded, but this would
just be too complicated for a boardgame. The fun moment where you can meet the
animated tools is oddly missed out and this would have been a nice respite
(like it is in the book) to allow you to recover some lost Stamina and Luck,
although a partially-completed bit of the dungeon might have seemed odd and the
Fountain Of Life in the Maze of Zagor essentially serves the same purpose.

The Maze of Zagor itself works very
differently to the book but, quite frankly, this can only be a saving grace as
I find this part of the book initially challenging before it quickly gets
boring and tedious. The version presented in the boardgame is heavily diluted
and it is theoretically possible to just walk around the outside of it if the
Maze cards pan-out in a certain way. Otherwise, you basically just approach a
Maze card and then check to see whether you can progress forwards or not. It is
possible for the Fountain of Life in the centre of the maze to be annoyingly
inaccessible but this is only if the route to it is inadvertently blocked due
to the layout of the Maze cards and is not likely to happen that often,
although, if it does, you cannot replenish your character which could make the
final battle with Zagor himself pretty fatal. If you have the Map you can check
the Maze cards before you are on the facing square but if another player gets
there first and you have a decent memory you can easily benefit from their
mistakes or successes!

Whilst there
are some encounters and treasures that were not ported over from the book there
are a lot of new ones that have been added to the boardgame version to avoid it
being a simple repetition of the same old material. Select highlights include
acquiring a Thief as an “item” so you can rob another player or steal a
treasure without a fight, a Lucky Find room where a successful Luck test gives
you a reward of treasure or money, an encounter with a generous Sage, the
aforementioned Gambling Halls (where you can invite other players to join in
too), Shylock the Money Lender (lifted straight from Shakespeare and
deliciously including his pound of flesh that he takes if you don’t pay him
back in time!)… the list goes on. For the most part though, all the most
memorable encounters and items from the book are here (somewhere lol) and I
particularly like the inclusion of the Giver of Sleep, the various traps, and
the Eye of the Cyclops. Indeed, the Eye of the Cyclops, along with the three
keys that open the Warlock’s treasure chest, is an item that tends to be
searched for in a frenzied manner as it will kill Zagor outright without having
to fight him (especially handy for initially weaker, or severely weakened,
characters.)

Which brings
us to the key (pardon the pun) subject of, er, keys. In the book you can defeat
Zagor only to fall at the last hurdle by not having the correct combination of
three keys to open the treasure chest and win. As the combination is set and,
therefore, unchanged in each playthrough, this would be a bit too easy and
repetitive for such a randomly generated boardgame full of genuine surprises,
at least in terms of how each room functions. It was pretty essential to
include the final fail point mechanic in the boardgame but to add variation
this time around the core concept of Cluedo
has been included in that you have to establish which three numbered keys (each
with a single digit on it from 1 through 9) are required to open the treasure
chest.This is done by periodically
doing Key Challenges whereby you say three key numbers out loud and the other
players must show the relevant Key Challenge cards if they have them. The
numbers that you know are not under the Treasure Chest card are marked off on a
grid and, by a simple process of elimination you gradually learn which three
keys you need to find. Keys are in bunches of three on certain Treasure cards
and you must have the correct three keys at the end when you try to open the
treasure chest. To make this task slightly easier, there are also some Skeleton
Keys dotted about on Treasure cards that can be substituted for any key numbers
you might not hold. Acquiring the correct keys is an essential mechanic of the
game, but it can also lead to fun/frustration if you are very near the end and
you get robbed by another player who holds the Thief card and you end up losing
one of the keys. As each Treasure card with keys on it has three numbers it is
a possibility that all three could be on just one card (easy on encumbrance,
but disastrous if you lose the card in question!) and, conversely, you could
need three different cards to get all the keys.

The
requirement to get the correct keys can greatly influence how you manage your
items and this is a sophisticated inclusion in a relatively simple boardgame.
You cannot carry more than six Treasure cards at any one time (excluding food
and money which are just added into your Gold and Provisions totals) and there
quickly comes a point where leaving cards behind in empty rooms for others to
plunder becomes a necessity. Certain Treasure cards are naturally more
sought-after than others which can make choosing what to drop quite tricky
after a while: weak characters will want the Eye of the Cyclops, the Potion of
Invisibility, the Slumber Pipes, the Giver of Sleep, and maybe the Thief, as
this will reduce the need for combat; if the Wight has not been killed yet the
Magic Sword or Enchanted Broadsword will become hot property (and these are
useful anyway due to the Attack Strength bonuses they afford you); obviously
keys are always needed; and the Elven Boots are very useful as they allow the holder
to roll two rather than one dice to move which can greatly accelerate progress
through the dungeon, especially in the final stages which can become something
of a race to face Zagor and/or reach the Treasure Room, especially if Zagor is
already dead and the person or people with the correct key combination are now
just trying to beat each other to the treasure. It is always quite amusing to
watch a confident player charging towards the end only for them to suddenly
start glumly back-peddling when they lose an essential item! But that does add
much more fun to the proceedings too, which is important.

As with all
boardgames, the combined prescriptive and random nature of this is not without
its problems, but these never hinder play or enjoyment and are merely my
personal observations:

The
Maze cards are to me pretty redundant and the maze in this form adds very
little to the game, but excluding it completely would have been too much at
odds with the original book

It
is possible to get some slightly odd combinations of Encounter and Treasure
cards but these mostly just add an element of humour or cruel irony eg: the
Wight having a magic weapon, any Undead having the Giver of Sleep, an easy
encounter that yields something very useful like the Eye of the Cyclops or
similar, etc

I
find playing with a larger group (ideally six) makes the game much more
challenging and varied and the game generally seems to work better the more
players there are for several reasons: Key Challenges are much tougher and
divining the correct key combination will take much longer; item distribution
is much sparser and it becomes far harder for one player to monopolise all the
best items;dying and restarting (if you
die you must leave all your items in the room where you died, then re-roll a
new character and start back at the dungeon entrance again) is generally far
less depressing than in a gamebook as you can sometimes quickly recoup your
lost stuff (as long as someone else hasn’t already taken it, of course), plus
there is the possibility of re-joining the game with a much stronger character,
but with less players the disparity between someone having to return to the
start and someone close to the end becomes all the more apparent

For
simplicity’s sake, as we have said, the character class figure you choose is
rendered meaningless, whereas in a gamebook or RPG this would have a big impact
on the dynamics of your character, but this would have made the game ungainly
and too complicated. That said, there is nothing to stop you playing an
“advanced” version where certain characters (Wizard, Elf, Cleric, Dwarf) have
different levels of magic spell use offset against Skill or Stamina penalties,
the Barbarian can be extra-strong, if the Elf and Dwarf meet they must fight,
etc etc… the many possibilities of customising the basic boardgame should be
enough to stop this from getting dull or too easy

Any
assessment of a “gamebook” always needs the difficulty level to be taken into
consideration and this version of WOFM
is very balanced in that sense. Obviously, there are no frustrating or
arbitrary instant deaths to scupper you (and they would not make any sense in a
boardgame) and, as we have said, if you die in combat or in a trap you can
start over to avoid having to sit and watch everyone else see the game out. Combats
range from very easy to quite tough, but the real challenges in this version
are inventory management and the Cluedo
steal of the Key Challenges, which makes a refreshing change within FF.

Given that there is no text to drive this adventure along, the visual aspect alone is
essential to the immersiveness of the gaming experience to be had from playing
this. The board is drawn in a nicely varied way with stone or wood floored sections,
rooms of different materials, shapes and sizes, multiple entry and exit points
from certain rooms, and little scrolls here and there listing special rules. Indeed,
it is the attention to detail that makes it all look so appealing. The board,
Encounter and Treasure cards are all drawn by Dave Andrews rather than the
book’s Russ Nicholson, but Andrews does an excellent job of emulating
Nicholson’s imagery from the book and you could easily be forgiven for thinking
the art this time around is by Nicholson again. Obviously some of the images
are better-suited to the small size of the card counters than others meaning
some seem a bit boxed-in (Hellhound, Dragon, etc) whilst others look perfectly
scaled (traps, etc) but, again, this is not a criticism and has no real effect
on the playing experience. Overall, I really like the visuals here and cannot
really see how it could have been presented any better than it is from the box
lid all the way down.

As
a note for collectors, there are a few minor variants out there for the
completist to get hold of: the six character figures exist in both red and
white plastic (I think the red versions are the earlier production) and the
pair of dice can be found either in red plastic with white spots or in the same
mid-green plastic with white dots as the dice included in the Fighting Fantasy Quest Pack. The 1988
Citadel Miniatures catalogue advertised a blister pack of all six figures (in
white plastic) as well, but I’ve personally never seen an example offered on
the collector’s market, so either these did not actually go on sale or they are
ultra-rare. Interestingly, the bow on the Elf in the set I got for Christmas
‘86 had a moulding fault that left a gap in the lower half of the bow shaft.
Many years later, when I finally got my set of WOFM figures painted I filled the gap and got it repaired.
Incidentally, if you want to read the story of the 25 years it took me to get
my figures finished off, you can find a post about it here: http://ffreviewermalthusd.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/figure-painting.html

Steve
Jackson did a great job in converting the gamebook into a fun, straightforward,
and eminently playable boardgame. One could argue that Deathtrap Dungeon should have got the same treatment and I’m
surprised this never happened, but no other FF boardgames in the style of the WOFM adaptation were ever produced. I
recall talk of Citadel Of Chaos being
planned as a second FF boardgame shortly after the first appeared, but sadly
this never came to fruition, leaving WOFM
as a tantalising suggestion of what could be done with the format. I thought
this game was superb when I first got it and I still think it is exceptionally
good now. Perhaps its status as the only one of its type might even add to its
mystique? Who knows, just get hold of a copy, play it with a group of like-minded
friends, and enjoy it. You will not be disappointed…

the pair of dice can be found either in red plastic with white spots or in the same mid-green plastic with white dots as the dice included in the Fighting Fantasy Quest Pack.Or in black plastic with white spots, judging by my copy of the game.

The 1988 Citadel Miniatures catalogue advertised a blister pack of all six figures (in white plastic) as well, but I’ve personally never seen an example offered on the collector’s market, so either these did not actually go on sale or they are ultra-rare. They did go on sale, as I remember buying one. I got it some time before I was able to acquire a copy of the boardgame, so for a while I was puzzled as to what exactly this bunch of characters had to do with TWoFM.

Hi. Thanks for reading my Blog. It's always nice to receive feedback. A review of the FF Battle Cards wasn't something I was planning for a while, especially as getting my hands on them all could be a challenge lol. If I can ever get a set I'll do a write-up some day though, but it won't be for a while.